Last night the sun set behind a haze of smoke filtering down from fires in Canada. We awoke to some haze but better than expected. The legs were rudely awakened as we immediately climbed out of our camp to the park entrance with grades exceeding 10%. “Shut Up Legs”.
WI DNR maintains an old rails to trails system that helped us avoid heavy town traffic. It was worth the $5 day use pass to travel on the smooth gravel Gandy Dancer Trail. After 4 1/2 miles we turned on to quiet and surprisingly smooth county highways to Balsom Lake where we discovered the most pleasant Balsom Lake Cafe. We had a hearty and delicious second breakfast (we had some oatmeal in camp to get us up the hill).
After breakfast we zig zaged through the country side, each of us taking turns pulling the other two behind. We have left the flat lands. The road undulates up and down and up ever gaining elevation as we leave the Mississippi and St Croix River bottoms.
We reached Cumberland and found a food market to grab a late lunch and something to supplement our dehydrated supper later tonight. Camp is an RV park 7 miles further down the road.
Before leaving Cumberland Steve took a quick swim in the lake. Rhonda dipped her Jersey in cold water while I found some shade. It’s more warm-ish than hot. I would not want to offend my friends suffering triple digits back home.
We rolled in to Country Quiet Campground. If you listen close, you will not hear any diesel trucks, motorcycles or trains. Just some birds chirping and a lone single engine Cessna looking for a soft place to land, and now it’s gone. 90% of the camp’s residents are here all season. Not a bad place to spend the summer. There are weekly Bingo and Corn Hole tournaments. You get the picture. It has that 1950’s, early 60’s vibe. The camp store is usually closed on Mondays but the owner drove by to welcome us and opened the store and served us a monster scoop of hard ice cream. Now we are just chasing the shade waiting for the sun to hide behind some trees before we pitch our tent.
Jon
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